Devotional
No More Reproach
We left yesterday morning for our first event of the year. A little over an hour into the trip, I noticed debris on the lens of the backup camera. It was oil from a cracked line that feeds the turbo. The back of the coach and the trailer were covered in oil. We looked everything over, made a call to the local cat dealer at home and found all of the parts we needed.
My son and I made a temp repair and we turned the rig north for home. An hour and a half later, we backed into the yard. I went to Macon, picked up the parts, swapped them out, changed the oil in the motor while my son cleaned up the mess…and it was a mess! (There’s a sermon in that line.) The kicker, it could have all been prevented. As we got ready to pull out yesterday morning, my son noticed a small leak on the turbo. I thought it would be OK. Had I taken the time to look at it, I would have realized how serious it was and could have prevented a lot of pain for all of us.
The Proper Foundation
As we navigate our business expansion, each step of the way I am asking for guidance from the Lord. Should I hire that person? Should I use this type of financing? Is this the right equipment?
A few years ago I would have been a mess trying to figure all of this out. Yes, you count the costs. Yes, you search for the right equipment. Yes, you talk to the bank. Yes, you talk to vendors and yes, you talk with your spouse about all of this. However, ultimately, it is His guidance I seek.
Market Resistance
Over the last few years, there have been times when I wondered if streaming video would ‘catch on’ and make all of our work worth while. In the early days quality was marginal and the ability to stream to more than a few hundred computers was almost impossible. There were days when quit looked real good, especially when we’d come to the end of our checkbook and see no way forward.
What I always found amazing, and perhaps I shouldn’t have, is the bills were always paid, we had food on the table and clothes on our backs. We never lacked for any basic need. It was in those times I realized the Lord was with us on this venture and that He had a plan to use our work as a way to show His love to those we came in contact with.
His Work, His Way
We need a fundamental mindset change in how we view our work. For to long, Christ followers have segregated work from worship. Sunday being for God and the other 6 days for man. I call that being religious and walked that path for many years.
Sometime during the winter of 2007-2008 I realized I was doing things my way, not just in the secular work I had, but in my walk and ministry. I had become ‘religious’. My first step was to ask God for forgiveness, my second step was to apologize to those I had harmed in any way through my preaching. Yes, 7 years into my walk, I found the real love of our Lord.
The Purpose of Crucibles
I use to really hate tests. I was not a very good student, probably because I wouldn’t focus on my studies. I mean after all, there were cars, hot rodding, girls, sports, work, friends and a whole lot of other stuff I thought was way more important than learning about geometry and grammar and all that other stuff. I found out later it would all boiled down to passion, I didn’t have any for school and a lot for everything else!
It took me a while, but I finally got down to understanding how important it was to study for tests. Not in high school, but school in the military. I had a passion to learn about airplanes. Once I started receiving consistently high scores, it fed on itself. Being prepared became my norm.
Competition in the Kingdom
Many of you know we operate our business under very different principles from those of the world’s. We help as many as we can understand how to stream live events. Most business people would say this is a foolish practice. Given our background and understanding of event webcasting, we could easily dominate our small part of the world for a long time. There’s only one problem with that mentality, it doesn’t meet the purpose we started Dragstory.com and Motormaniatv.com, ‘to gain sportsman drag racing the world wide exposure they deserve.’
The world views others in the same business as competitors. Our club is so small, we have banded together to help each other, I like to say we are co conspirators. If their heart is the same as ours, we will help them. There is plenty of work to go around. More importantly, the Lord has already designated our portion so there is no need to hoard anything.
Recognizing Our Source
Pride is a very dangerous commodity for Christ followers. While we can be proud of what we have accomplished, the glory is always His.
It was early 2007, I had just finished my first year as a bi-vocational minister work with a friends business. 2006 was the first year I streamed drag racing. It was also a time of wilderness wandering. For the first time in my life, I was not sure of my direction or even who I was suppose to be. I attended a pastors teaching conference in Phoenix, AZ. Lots of prayer, spirit filled praise and worship and listening to some of the best speakers in Christendom at the time, TD Jakes, Brian Houston and Joyce Meyers to name a few. I left the conference filled with hope, but little direction.
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